St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-02-02
BUT NO WIFE.
Miss Nina Van Zandt Unites Her Fortunes
With Anarchist Spies in Novel
Manner.
The Would-Be Groom Furnishes His
Brother Henry With Curious Legal
Document,
Authorizing Him to Marry the Impa-
tient Girl in the Prisoners
Name.
The Ceremony Performed by a JUS
tfce-- Complications That May
Arise.
Special to the Globe.

Special to the Globe.
CHICAGO, Feb. 1.-When Sheriff Mat
son, about two weeks ago. issued an order
to the officials of the county jail not to ad-
NIT Miss Nina Van Zandt to her lover,
Spies, nor let any other unauthorized peo-
pie Ill, it was thought that the matter was
settled, and the couple would have to wait
until Spies was given his liberty. if he
should get it, before they could be married.
Miss Van Zandt. however, remembered the
Sheriff'S remark that if she were Spies wife
she might be allowed the same privileges
that were given to the wives of the other
prisoners. She did not want to submit to
separation from her lover, and finally de-
temined that
SHE MUST BE MARRIED
to him. The law about marrying by letter or
by proxy was looked UP and Justice Engel-
hardt in the town of jefferson. whose
name figured in the papers during the last
months Of the past year as denouncing the
verdict Of the anarchist trial. was consulted.
He gave it as his opinion that marriage
by proxy would be binding in law if the
proxy was made out in legal form. He was
commissioned to draw up the form of proxy
and spent considerable time in making it
conform to what he thought was the law in
the case. The document was MT ready
until last Friday. Early Saturday Miss
Van Zandt and Gretchen Spies, sister of
August, went out to Jefferson and called
on Justice Engelhardt to get the proxy and
having procured the document went down
to the county jail with it. They met the
wife Of Spies brother, Ferd, and Mrs.
Wendand and these ladies witnessed the
signature of Spies to the document by
which he gave
FULL AUTHORITY TO HIS BROTHER
Henry w. Spies, to represent him at the
time. Mrs. Ferd Spies and Gretchen Spies
signed the paper to witness the signature.
Then the whole party went down town and
Mrs. Ferd Spies called on her husband at
his Office. She told him about the affair
and asked him to accompany them to the
town of jefferson to Justice Engelhardt's
Office on Milwaukee avenue. Ae was sur
prised, but seeing that the matter had gone
too far to be stopped, consented to go
along. The party was reinforced by Miss
Van ZandtS parents and Henry and Chris
Spies. They went on foot the whole dis
tance up Milwaukee avenue and beyond the
limits TO Justice Engelhardt's Office. Henry
Spies answered to the name of August
Vincent Theodore Spies and under this
name was married TO Miss Nina Van Zandt.
1t is said by Ont very intimately related to
the contracting parties that the ceremony
was performed at the earnest and pressing
desire of Miss Van Zamdt and that August
Spies simply let her
HAVE HER OWN SWEET WILL
about it. The main object was to be able
to see her lover. or rather her husband.
The same person is authority for the state
ment that Mrs. Van Zandt is very well sat
ished and that Mr.. Van Zandt thinks very
highly of Spies, but is too seriously affected
and nervously7, excited just at present to
give any opinion of the matter Mrs.
Spies, the mother of August, is well salts
fed. inasmuch as she has very high opin-
ion of Miss Van Zandt. There is said to be
the best of feeling between the Spies and
Van Zandt families, and the Van Zandts
and Mr.. and Mrs. Ferdinand Spies fre-
Quently interchange visits. The same III
formant is authority for the statement that
LEONARD swETT,
counsel for the anarchists, does not think
the marriage legal, and was opposed to the
whole thing. So were some of Spies rela-
tives. They objected to the engagement
while Spies was in JAIL and feel very ill-sat-
isfied over this particular part of the pro-
ceedings. They did not object to the
match, but to the marriage under the eX.
isting circumstances. The marriage by
proxy is something new and gives rise to
number of questions which the first pro-
pOSal did not touch upon. Ii people can be
thus married it would seem that it opens
the gates to marvellous complications. Take
the view of the question that man can be
married by proxy, it would require the
most unbounded faith in human nature,
for if, being married, the proxy commit
larceny as bailee, it is difficult to say what
recourse the preSumptive owner of the
bride would have to recover his property,
OF if
THE BRIDE SHOULD CHANGE HER MIND
and prefer the proxy to the original it then
places both the proxy and the original in
embarrassing positions, as it would be diff
cut to tell whose wife she actually was. If
the bridegroom became sick of his bargain
the same would hold true. and the bride
would be in doubt whose widow she really
was. in case the bridegroom did not come
to time. Another consideration is the fact
that Henry Spies is married. Should the
proxy be declared void, and the courts
hold that the man and not the
name was married, as has been
held in cases where men tried to
deceive women by marrying them under an
assumed name and shirk their responsible
ties, an action of bgamy might lie. 1t will
thus be seen that the fact established last
Saturday opens the flood-gates of uncer-
tainty and gives to the novelist field that
has been little dreamt Of, and which will
give him most unbounded riches for future
efforts. The license for the marriage was
issued about three weeks ago. 1t has not
been returned to the county clerk yet with
a certificate that the ceremony has been per-
formed The law requires the license to
be returned within thirty days after the
ceremony.
SPIES DECLINES TO SPEAK
of the ceremony, and Miss Van Zandt re-
fuses to be interviewed, or even to be seen.
Her father also declines to talk but does
not deny the fact of the ceremony. Sheriff
Matson expressed great surprise, and then
promptly said:
Iwould not consider a farce like that
marriage anless pronounced so by competent
legal authority. The alleged ceremony will
not, in my judgment, change the relations of
the parties. If this action was taken for the
purpose of compelling Inc to consent to the
visits of Miss Van Zandt to the jail, it is
mistaken course. and will not avail. There is
no obligation, even if she were his lawful
wife. TO let her visit Spies, who is my plis-
oner Allowing wives to visit their impris-
oned husbands is merely matter of coutesy.
The Curse of R Ome.
LOUISVILLE, KY. Feb. 1.-The facts in
q case which illustrates the rigid rules of
the Catholic church concerning divorced
neople. have just been made public here.
Michael Mccoy, a grocer of this city, has
been communicated from ST. Patrlck's
Catholic church owing to his marriage with
a Miss Emma Long. after having secured a
Ia, I 4